Uninteresting retread marks Michael Bay's total creative collapse

Rating: 3/10 (3 August 2005)

Michael Bay's films have been on a decline pretty much since he's started making films. After Bad Boys they've all decreased in quality. Sure Armegeddon is a guilty pleasure but its a dumb movie. Pearl Harbor and Bad Boys 2 exist for the action sequences. The Island however has no reason to exist since even the action is unexciting.
The plot starts out as on odd mix of Logan's Run and Soylent Green before turning into just another twisty chase movie. The problem is that there is nothing we haven't seen before. And while there are a few interesting bumps, they are the exception to a very dull movie.
I blame this on Michael Bay, a director who it seems has a limited palate. His use of filters and quick cuts and very precise action sequences has been done to death by Hollywood and especially by Bay himself. Once our two stars escape and end up in the city I began to feel I had seen it all before. I could sense what the next set up would be and which way the plot would twist. Worse the normally exciting action sequence that Bay puts together fall flat. THere is no sense of rhythm, and the normally quick paced Bay somehow slows everything down to a very dull point, or he seems to. Cars are crashing before me and I want to hit the fast forward. Even here in the action sequences Bay repeats himself. Its awful. Actually its just dull.
This is a lavishly produced film thats just no fun to watch. I can't recommend it. Maybe it will be better on TV or cable but in the theater this was an endurance test I never want to take again.